A fire aboard the HMM Namu, a cargo ship that had been stuck in the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian control, has been fully extinguished, HMM said. No injuries were reported, and the vessel is expected to enter nearby Dubai to assess damage.
HMM said the fire was put out after midnight May 5, Korea time.
Because a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) was used to fight the blaze, crew members plan to enter the engine room later in the day to check the extent of damage and then report the findings to the South Korean government and HMM headquarters, the company said.
The HMM Namu is a Panama-flagged 38,000-deadweight-ton bulk carrier operated by HMM. It was launched in September last year at the HPWS shipyard in Guangzhou, China.
The fire broke out with an explosion around 8:40 p.m. the previous day (Korea time) in the port-side section of the engine room while the ship was anchored in waters near the United Arab Emirates, the company said.
Six South Korean crew members and 18 foreign crew members were aboard, and HMM said it had confirmed there were no casualties. The ship is expected to be moved to Dubai port soon.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, pointed to Iran as being behind the incident, saying Iran had fired several times at ships from unrelated countries, including a South Korean cargo ship, during vessel movements linked to a “Liberation Project.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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